1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to dispensers for flexible/collapsible wall tube containers and specifically to such dispensers which control the extrusion of viscous substances from such containers.
2. Description of Prior Art
Many types of collapsible tube containers are well known for containing fluid like substances. Thin walled metal containers are usually used for the containment of low viscosity substances, whereas containers made with resilient plastics are used for substances with relatively higher viscosity.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,628,696 to Duiker (1971) discloses a dispenser for flexible wall tube containers. The tube container is collapsed and wound upon a mandrel, and once the tube is collapsed the dispenser prevents the tube from unwinding or expanding. However, the device in Duiker is relatively complex and less economical from a manufacturing stand point.
Several types of dispensers for collapsible tube containers have been disclosed; for example U.S. Pat. No. 2,013,389 to Lovrich (1935), U.S. Pat. No. 1,669,247 to Johnson (1928), U.S. Pat. No. 1,797,727 to Spisa (1931), U.S. Pat. No. 1,973,543 Simon (1934), and U.S. Pat. No. 648,981 to Nelson (1900). However, these devices are relatively more expensive to manufacture since they fail to provide dispensers that one can make with one standard type of stock material. Also, by way of design, they require a relatively high amount of torque to be applied when winding the tubes during dispensing, thus requiring more work by the user.